Recruiting Bash Recap

[CajunDreDog]

I'm posting the pictures I took right now...waiting for them to upload. I also scanned a pocket schedule that was available with the 2008 football schedule...that is the last two pictures in the album.

You'll see a few pictures of what the new turf (that was the big announement) will look like.

http://ragincajuns.shutterfly.com

Food was GREAT.....NOT NEARLY ENOUGH SEATING!!!!!!!!!!!! WAY TOO MANY PEOPLE HAVING TO STAND THE WHOLE TIME!

[ragin2112cajun]

Well its that time of the year for us cajun fans to welcome the future of our beloved program!Not living in Lafayette any more I do my best to keep up with the program.The class as a whole from reading up seems pretty impressive considering some of the devastating losses that we suffered last season.
The real question is what can the COACHING STAFF do with the kids that we have in the fold for next year,when you consider only a handfull of these new recruits will see game action next season.
Upgrades,new turf,etc only geaux so far with the wishy washy cajun fans around Lafayette!Wins is the only cure all that fixes everything and the locals have expressed their unhappiness with Bustle.
He came here with such high credentials but his offensive success at V.Tech came with a once and a several years athlete in Mike Vick at QB.
With the success of FAU it only makes you shake your head.They have only been a program for a little over a decade.Where we have been going at it for over a hundred years!
Please Bustle for all of us use this Lenten season to get on your knees and pray to the football gods to wish football greatness on you and your staff.

[Zeebart21]

So no news on the baseball stadium, field, lights, etc. What was the big announcement? Does cajun field need turf to go bowling? does the tigue need upgrades to host a regional?

Maybe baseball is it's own program seperate from the rest of the university, it seems that way in alot of ways. Maybe baseball will make it's own announcement at fan day or something like that?

I hope that being a year behind ULM's upgraded field is not our proud announcement. Now I get to go to work and tell the LSUAMBR fans " yeah we got turf ". I'm calling in sick.

Wait a minute, you are concerned about facing lsu morons at work? Does that really bother you?

Z

[zephyr]

_ man, UL NEEDS TO SHELL OUT SOME MONEY AND HIRE A GOOD MARKETING EXEC.......OR JUST TAKE SOME COMMON SENSE ADVICE FROM FANS ON THIS SITE FOR FREE!!!!!!!!!!!! _

Maybe you could elaborate a bit. The only way they can take your advice and use it is to receive it. I doubt they would spend all of their free time browsing these forums looking for marketing advice. Maybe those who feel that they have some valuable insight into certain things can email or call and speak to someone of importance. Seems to me that it will work instead of complaining about it here. Sorry, not trying to offend anyone but its JMO.

[Shammy]

_ Maybe you could elaborate a bit. The only way they can take your advice and use it is to receive it. I doubt they would spend all of their free time browsing these forums looking for marketing advice. Maybe those who feel that they have some valuable insight into certain things can email or call and speak to someone of importance. Seems to me that it will work instead of complaining about it here. Sorry, not trying to offend anyone but its JMO. _

First how about promoting all events over all the radio stations in acadiana,not just espn 1420.

Billboards outside of Lafayette, put some on I10 and I49

Advertise events at other newspapers in crowley ,eunice and other surronding areas.


Any other ideas......

[zephyr]

That is the question you must answer. I can't see how not having signs on I-10 and 49 makes our marketing dept. a waste of space. Actually, it seems like a waste of money. The radio ideas I can go with along with the Advertiser getting on board to help stimulate some excitement amongst readers. Actually, this is where I would start as part of administration, by calling the newspaper and explaining our position and begging for more coverage.

As an owner of a billboard in town I can tell you that there is no more of a waste of money than getting one of these to promote what?? Our recruiting event?

[JamesTheJeweler]

_ Maybe you could elaborate a bit. The only way they can take your advice and use it is to receive it. I doubt they would spend all of their free time browsing these forums looking for marketing advice. Maybe those who feel that they have some valuable insight into certain things can email or call and speak to someone of importance. Seems to me that it will work instead of complaining about it here. Sorry, not trying to offend anyone but its JMO. _

my point was kinda that if it seems like common sense to most of us (thus the word "COMMON SENSE") seems they could figure it out themselves!

[RaginCajun77]

That is the question you must answer. I can't see how not having signs on I-10 and 49 makes our marketing dept. a waste of space. Actually, it seems like a waste of money. The radio ideas I can go with along with the Advertiser getting on board to help stimulate some excitement amongst readers. Actually, this is where I would start as part of administration, by calling the newspaper and explaining our position and begging for more coverage.

As an owner of a billboard in town I can tell you that there is no more of a waste of money than getting one of these to promote what?? Our recruiting event?

zephyr I can tell you that three different marketing plans were submitted to Athletic Marketing in the Spring of 2007. Needless to say none of the ideas were used.

[ULtimateCajun]

I was kind of hoping they would announce some of the Baseball news but I understand considering it is a football bash. Still wondering if new uni's will be here next season. I was impressed with the Indoor Facility, very very nice. Happy with the class overall even though we lost the 4 star recruit, very unfortunate with the situation with his mother. I'm glad to see we are addressing the defensive side of the ball with some big DB's and some pretty good looking LB's. I like the QB's we landed as well. The 6'3" dual threat QB looks like he might have some game. The 6'6" TE that runs a 4.6 forty looks really good. I liked that everything was free (not to sound cheap). They also raised about $10,000.00 just on the auction, not counting the money donated. I had an overall good experience.

[J-Town Cajun]

My thoughts on the bash:

I have now gone to this event since Bustle's first signing class. For the first time I felt there was no electricity in the air. The auction was kind of embarrasing as TD Smith had to beg people to bid on the gifts. I was also a little disappointed on the announcements. The turf was pretty well known here for awhile and the football scheldule is horrible. The level of competition is great but the first 7 weeks of the season we will have only 1 home game. Most fans are exicited at the start of the season and with the first 5 of 6 games on the road and one bye week there is the potential to start the season with a bad record and we will lose support. Also the end of the season is loaded with home games and the weather will not be as tailgate friendly as the start of the season. Not having this Ragin Cajun Athletic Foundation up and running I just can't believe. Scott Farmer also made it sound like we will hear more in late spring but did not sound like it will be running by that time. How long does it take to start a fund raising foundation. Not hearing Ryan Glazer name was also disappointing but this was out of our control and I wish the Glazer family the best and if things work out for him and the Cajuns that will be great but we need serious Juco help at the DT position and without Glazer we are in trouble. We should have had 2 recruited in that position all along.

The good. The indoor practice facility look awesome. I had seen it a few times in the summer and fall but the finished product looked great. The set up with the free food/drinks, the stage, PA system, and the big screen was first class. Baja Beach grill did a wonderful job as did the ladies from Legends serving drinks. The new field turf looked awesome with ragin cajuns in script at midfield and Louisiana in the endzones with no Lafayette anywhere. The scheldule is very competitive with no D1 AA and a great non confernce home sheldule with UTEP and Kent St. coming to Cajun field and we are on the road at Illinois, Kansas St., and Southern Miss. Although slow to come together it is nice to see a Ragin Cajun Athletic Foundation. Also nice to see an AD with vision and is voicing ideas to the public.

Our recruiting class seemed really athletic compered to years past. Jaron Odem is huge at 6-8 and 340 but needs to reshape his body and lose 20 or so pounds. Our LB's, S's, and CB's look to be the strong point of the class. The secondary has great depth at each and some look to be great players. Gillis, Jackson, Richard, and Sowels are the real deal and I expect a tremdous DB field in a couple years with contributions from these guys in the next year or two. Derrick Dean at the DT position has got some serious speed running a 4.6 40 and is quick as a cat at 275 lbs. The quarterback from Lutcher Gautier looks very promising run/pass and could be a steal. The RB Booker also looks to be a great pick up kind of tall for a RB but has good speed, long stride in the open field, and very athletic. Late commitment LB Jesse Broadnax at 6-5 200 has tremdous height at that position and was very impressive on the highlight film but I just can't see a 6-5 LB so maybe he will play a stand up DE or something. Kyron Benoit was courted by many SEC schools before his knee injury (will be or already 100%) and was still offered by all state schools except LSU, good kid and athlete I just hope we find the right position (LB, S, or QB) for him. Ladarius Green at 6-6 220 could make a tremdous pass catching TE. Green played WR in HS but at that size I project TE. Ruiz will make one heck of an OL very athletic and good technique.

[Cajun Express]

My thoughts on the bash:

The scheldule is very competitive with no D1 AA and a great non confernce hom.

Our recruiting class seemed really athletic compered to years past. Jaron Odem is huge at 6-8 and 340 but needs to reshape his body and lose 20 or so pounds.

Late commitment LB Jesse Broadnax at 6-5 200 has tremdous height at that position and was very impressive on the highlight film but I just can't see a 6-5 LB so maybe he will play a stand up DE or something.

I have to agree with many of your positions on this, but I think you might want to consider the flollowing:

I could have been happy with a 1AA team at Cajun Field instead of Illinois, or Kansas State. This would be giving this team a chance to do well. I don't know, but if David Walker turns up dead, Ricky will be high on the person of interest list. This schedule is more than competitive, it is a coach killer. I am pretty sure most of these guys reworked their resume when they saw this one.

Odom and Broadnax both will be fine with the bodies they have. Body builds that do not pass the sniff test mean nothing. Broadnax, tall, lanky, fast. Kind of like a NFL hall of fame player Ted Hendricks at 6'7" and 225 The Mad Stork in college. I believe he played for Florida in college and was every coaches nightmare.

[RaginFan2]

I have to agree with many of your positions on this, but I think you might want to consider the flollowing:

I could have been happy with a 1AA team at Cajun Field instead of Illinois, or Kansas State. This would be giving this team a chance to do well. I don't know, but if David Walker turns up dead, Ricky will be high on the person of interest list. This schedule is more than competitive, it is a coach killer. I am pretty sure most of these guys reworked their resume when they saw this one.

Odom and Broadnax both will be fine with the bodies they have. Body builds that do not pass the sniff test mean nothing. Broadnax, tall, lanky, fast. Kind of like a NFL hall of fame player Ted Hendricks at 6'7" and 225 The Mad Stork in college. I believe he played for Florida in college and was every coaches nightmare.

Ted was from Miami ("the U"), I believe.

Good talking with you at the bash, Jerry. I'm not sure about you, but I had the distinct feeling that Bustle was a bit subdued. Maybe it was just the end of the recruiting frenzy. Maybe it was the late loss of a couple of prospects. Maybe it was the Glazer situation. And just maybe it was the schedule! Who knows... Overall, I enjoyed it. But it seemed there were higher expectations than what was delivered. I know some of that was due to the anticipated "big announcements", which were over-hyped (on the message boards, not by the Athletic Dept., to be fair).

That was my impression.